Back in 2006 I was in Telluride, Colorado for the 33rd Annual Telluride Film Festival which gave their silver medals (for lifetime achievment essentially) to both Penelope Cruz and Rolf de Heer. Penelope's tribute had lines around the theatre and had people turned away. The one for Rolf was in a tiny venue (known as the Sheraton Opera House) that sat maybe 100 people.
The show wasn't sold out and we were led into the event by watching clips from Rolf's other films Bad Boy Bubby and a few others. While they seemed very gritty and true, they also kind of turned me off of this man's work. I appreciate that he wanted to take a look at the love life of the developmentally challenged, but it was very sexualized and there is kind of a fine line for me with regards to that. Either way, long story short, Ten Canoes was my favorite film of the fesitval, even going head-to-head with Pedro Almodovar's (my favorite living director) Volver.
The film is a fable about life, death and the constant desire to be older than you are ready to be. The story is told by a narrator (David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu, the aboriginal boy from Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout) and spans two seperate life cycles. Not only is the tale inciteful but the real life canoe making is interesting to watch.
This is the first film ever made to only be made in an aboriginal language which celebrates their heritage and culture, both which are dying due to development and colonization.
The film is warm, funny and at times shocking. These "uncivilized" people aren't much different from you, me or anyone else in your city. They all want to love and be loved, they all have vices and they think farting is funny. And in this film, it very much is.
The subtleties in the camera work (including, but limited to, the exact picture drawn on the chest of Minygululu [Peter Minygululu] the elder matches the area where his soul is deposited, waiting to be reincarnated). The use of the same actor (Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu) in two story lines infact shows that cyclical nature of their beliefs and other the film. Also not to mention that he is the younger brother of the narrator who is telling the story of "his ancestors."
This film is an incredible oppertunity to see into a culture that most of us will never have a chance to witness. This film would make an incredible double-feature with the previously mentioned Walkabout (or The Tracker) if anyone is interested in a wholely Australian experience.
This film may not have the complexity and depth of Walkabout but it shines in other ways and is very much worth a viewing.
I have absolutely no reservations about giving this film 5 stars.